An Early Sign the Amazon Kindle Fire May Do Well

By Alexis C. Madrigal

In the continuing debate over whether there is a tablet market or just an iPad market, the early signs for the iPad's toughest competitor yet, the Amazon Kindle Fire, are good. It became the number one "Most Wished For" electronics product on Amazon. Granted, you'd expect Amazon's hardware to do well on Amazon's website, but previous non-iPad tablets haven't generated high levels of excitement.

I can't quite quantify my intuition yet, but the Fire looks like a holiday success to me. At $199 $250*, it's a perfectly priced electronics gift. More than a Blu-Ray player, about the same as a videogame system, less than a computer.